LC–MS–MS Determination of Stabilizers and Explosives Residues in Hand-Swabs

The contribution of explosive trace detection in samples from the hands of suspects has been fundamental in several forensic cases involving terrorists. This paper describes a method for the rapid extraction and unequivocal confirmation of some high potential explosives (trinitrotoluene, cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine, pentaerythritol tetranitrate, nitroglycerin) and two stabilizer (diphenylamine and ethylcentralite) residues in hand-swabs using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The extraction procedure of the analytes from the swabs is realized by solvent elution and the extracts are directly analyzed. Recoveries from spiked swabs range from 78 to 96%; the limits of quantification are between 0.04 and 1.8 ng injected and the inter-day method precision is less than 15%. The developed procedure was applied to the detection of explosives traces in samples after handling tests.